Last summer ULRs at Wincantons Snodland site in Kent thought how great it would be if the learning centre could raise money to help local charities with an active involvement of the staff on site. 

Barbara Elkington and Richard Sinfield, the ULRs in question, bantered around many ideas until they agreed that printing a calendar for the following year - with staff contributing pictures - was the one they would run with.

They advertised to staff that they were looking for 12 pictures to cover show images that reflected the months on the year, for example spring/winter or a hot summer’s day or local events. Staff were slow to engage at first but with encouragement, photos started coming through and over the next few months 10 people submitted pictures on various subjects, from plants to animal to sunsets to snow scenes.

Barbara said:

Now to choose the winners. With just under 100 pictures and so many topics the task was over whelming so we asked our project worker Mitch Pressnell if she could help. Mitch suggested that we ask staff to votes for the 12 months and then an overall favourite for the front cover. What a great idea! We ran this past personnel and gained an agreement to a day out in the canteen to cover all shifts and ask them to vote."

With all the submissions ready, the ULRs needed to get all the pictures printed. They downloaded everything to a memory stick and trekked off down to the local camera shop in Tesco, then set about getting almost 100 photos printed to be displayed on a very large notice board in the canteen and print voting slips. 

On the day with boards set up in the canteen 98 people took the time to vote which wass a great response. 

Richard said:

The cover photo was taken by Mark Goodyale, a senior warehouse manager and the company donated a Kindle fire as 1st prize. His picture of the Tower of London wall with all the poppies coming out of the window was stunning. Mark took the picture and then turned to black and white and changed each poppy to red. It took him 3 weeks and this kind of detail shows his love of photography."

The other winning photographs came from across all sections of the workforce:

• January: Robin by Steve Howard (Driver) 
• Feburary: Sunset by Eddy Yates (Warehouse)
• March: The Moon by Eddy Yates (Warehouse)
• April: Sunset by Eddy Yates (Warehouse)
• May: Old war Sopwith Triplane by Ken Gibbs (Loader)
• June: Fruit dropping into water by Mike Whitaker (Warehouse)
• July: Fighting otters by Ken Gibbs (Loader)
• August: Aerial view of Leeds Castle by Steve Howard (Driver)
• September: Male lion by Steve Howard (Driver)
• October: War monument by Adrian Griffin (Warehouse Manager)
• November: Poppies at Tower of London by Mark Goodyale (Overall winner)
• December: Dickens day in Rochester by Adrian Griffin (Warehouse Manager)

Mitch visited the site to talk to ULRs and came across some interesting stories behind the photos.

Mitch said:

I spoke with Steve Howard to get some background behind his pictures. Steve and his wife both have digital cameras and have been involved in this hobby for six years. They both have different special photos and the Leeds Castle picture was a great day out for Steve. 

His wife had brought him a day’s flying for his birthday. When he got to the aerodrome he spoke with the tutor to ask if they could fly over Leeds Castle so he could take some photos and the chosen picture was his favourite."

Mitch said that the whole activity was a really useful experience for the reps:

They have overcome many challenges on this project and learnt a few lessons. Next year they will start earlier and be more organised so calendars can be sold earlier."

The project had some real benefits to team building across the different sections of the workforce at Wincanton – and even better they raised £140 to be shared between Demelza House, a local Children’s hospice, and CHUMS (Children’s Hope for Understanding Multiple Sclerosis), as well as awareness of the charity’s.